8o Norway and the Norzvegians 



its results) was the great invasion of England, which 

 began in a.d. 866, and was only brought to an end after 

 twelve years (a.d. 878) by the cession of half the land of 

 England to the conquerors. This first Danish invasion 

 of England — that of Sweyn and Canute at the beginning 

 of the eleventh century being the second — is too familiar 

 a portion of our national history to need dwelling upon 

 here. But as our histories, especially our school and 

 popular histories, were rather apt to tell it from the 

 English point of view, and dwell exclusively on the 

 efforts and achievements of Alfred, it is well to remem- 

 ber how successful a performance it was from the point 

 of view of the invaders. 



By the treaty between Alfred and the leader of the 

 Danish army in the south, all of England north of the 

 Thames, east of the Lea and of Watling Street (the 

 great highway which ran, and still runs, between London 

 and Wroxeter), and south of the Humber, was given up 

 to form the kingdom of the Danish leader Guthrum, 

 who became a Christian, and was baptized /Ethelstan. 

 But, meantime, all Northumbria, all England, and Low- 

 land Scotland between the Humber and the Forth had 

 been already subjected by another Viking leader, and 

 this was constituted into a second Scandinavian king- 

 dom in England. 



The heathens from the north made crveat efforts to 

 carry their conquests in France and Germany as far 

 as they had carried them in England. One of their 

 invading armies advanced up the Ehine as far as 

 Coblenz. Another crossed the whole of France ; but one 

 town, Paris, held out for a year against a whole army 

 of Vikings under a famous leader ; and it may have 



